IBE the Journey - Part 03

To read from the beginning, click HERE (Continued from Part 02)

The war with the RATs

IBE wasn’t just about working in a company; it was still a course consisting of other three classes. It means that we also had to deal with tests and quizzes a lot. One new thing in this semester was the RATs – readiness assessment tests, for which we had to do a test about stuffs that we were going to learn (in other word, we hadn’t learned). They were hard, and they were abundant. 

It didn’t make sense anymore to ask myself if I was gonna have a test soon: I always had some test everyday! So I kept reading and reading, feeling just like the time in Petra (Montana). The Management book and the Marketing one were pretty well-written actually. I have learned a lot of new information reading them. The MIS (Management Information System) text-book, in the other hand, was downright clueless. The book had a horde of technical terms that in no way I could remember them all. Couldn’t do anything else, I kept reading more and more, hopefully that I would get some As which were so rare in the RATs. I didn’t get many As, however, since half of each RAT we did in team, and no one in my team was as prepared as I was. So we did decently, and sometimes the rest of the team disagreed with me in questions that I was so sure about. There were situations that I had to stand up against my team and tried to persuade them so hard. I succeeded, actually, and gradually I became the most significant member of team 11. Sometimes we got an A for the RAT, I was so happy and… break-danced right in the class. Many times my teammates would say, “We didn’t get an A, but I want to see Anh break-dances.”

The tests was another battle

The RATs were hard, by the tests weren’t jokes, neither. Real tests were bigger, fewer, and therefore more decisive (each worth 100 pt.) The Marketing tests were particular hard. The first test I got a B. I told that to my girlfriend, she said, “Next time you get an A and let me know, ok?” So for the next one I tried harder. And I got a C. It was just wrong, as if the more I tried the worse I did. So I talked with the professor, he said, “My tests are supposed to be uneasy. There ain’t many As in my class, historically.” I couldn’t give up anyway, I had to get an A to tell it to my girlfriend! For the third test, I spent even more time studying the book, and tried to study differently. I got a high B. It was great, but it wasn’t enough. I needed to find another way of study. I did. When I finished my last Marketing test, I handed the scantron to the professor to run through the grading machine. The machine graded my test and the professor looked at it. He was smiling mysteriously and… ran my scantron once more! Then he gave it back to me, and it was a solid A right there. Yes, I was happy. “Arwen, I got an A for my Marketing test!...”

The CIS tests were hard too, but it was just another effort of mine trying harder and with different ways. The results were good also. My instructor was smiling when she asked me, “Are you satisfied with your grade?” “Yes, I really do.” I smiled too, for a moment to forget all the struggles I had to deal with.

(to be continued...)

Part 04